


If I Talk Real Slowly, If I Try Real Hard

by midnightwhistleberries



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Amusement Park, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-08 23:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3227552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightwhistleberries/pseuds/midnightwhistleberries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Sebastian starts to wander in another direction, still chattering away to Louis, who turns back to Harry to mouth a Thank you. Harry shoots him a stunning smile in return. </i><br/>He falls back into step with Seb, who looks up at him and says, “Daddy, can I see Mister Harry again when we come back? He’s said he’s gonna tell me a really funny joke.”<br/>“Sure thing.” Louis would like to see Mister Harry again too.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In which single dad Louis might have found more than he ever dreamed of at his son's favorite amusement park. Niall is awesome, Sophia is pretty, and people are brought together in unexpected ways.</p>
<p>Title from "For You" by Angus and Julia Stone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If I Talk Real Slowly, If I Try Real Hard

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> My Dear Prompter: I hope you like it! Come befriend me after the reveal pls
> 
> As always, thank you to my wonderful betas!

Louis hadn’t had much time to familiarize himself with the idea of being a single father before he suddenly was, but of the few expectations he did have time to develop, budgeting in amusement park admission from his lone salary certainly was not one. Yet, here he finds himself again, being led onto the grounds with his little warrior’s forceful tug, and rooting around in his bag in an attempt to locate his wallet. The few pounds he needs are more difficult to acquire as Sebastian won’t release his other hand, but Louis manages to hand them over to the woman in the admission booth nonetheless. She gives him a friendly nod and quirks a small smile. He expects nothing less, to be quite honest – he’s been to this bloody park every weekend since he’d moved back home to Doncaster to get his mum’s help with Sebastian.

 

It’s a bit of a far drive, but it’s entirely designed for kids under ten and it’s perfect for Seb. Regardless of the distance and admission, he can’t feel too guilty about the money he spends on his boy, though, could never, especially as he’s getting free daycare from his wonderful mother and menagerie of caring sisters. Besides, with the amount of time he’s away from home for work, the least he can do is take his boy to his favorite place in the world.

 

The way Sebastian reacts to every ride they go on together makes every late night meeting a deadline and every missed family event worth it. He sees himself in his boy every time he lights up on the tractor ride, or leans too far out of their cabin at the top of the Ferris wheel, forcing Louis to grab on and look out at the park grounds with him. He might be beginning to make friends with some of the ride operators, actually; there’s a really beautiful petite girl who may or may not be a princess that he’s impractically jealous of who always smiles at Seb when they go to the Pirate Adventure, and the really cool guy who operates the Robin Hood ride, who Louis thinks is called Zayn. If his tattoos and demeanor are anything to go by, he’s someone Louis would get on quite well with, and he respects the man’s bold headband choices. Though he’s usually pretty stoic, today he smiles at Louis, and leans down to softly say hi to Sebastian and ruffle his hair. A potential friend, indeed.

 

Which, as perfect as his life has turned out otherwise, friends are something he’s been missing the few months he’s been back in Doncaster. His friends from before had all dispersed when they went to university, and all seemingly stayed wherever they had wound up. He’s got a few new acquaintances among the fellow sports reporters from the paper he writes for, but the extent of those relationships is going out for drinks after a game they’re covering. He’s hardly got time to be lonely between caring for Sebastian and being near his family, but he catches himself in spells more often than he’d like to admit.

 

Usually once they’ve spent a couple hours going on the different rides Sebastian starts whining for a visit to the food area or a bathroom break, but today he drags Louis over to the small games area, not one of the greater features of the park. Louis looks quizzically down at his son, who just keeps tugging on him and shouting, “ _Play¸_ Daddy!” His tiny little fingers clench more tightly around his own as his boy trudges forward. Both Louis and his wallet are weak to uphold any battle now.

 

Seb goes to the bottle ring toss stand first. He stops directly in front of the booth and lets go of Louis’ hand, but not before turning his head up at him and staring expectantly. Louis sighs and reaches for his wallet (he’s _four_ , why does he know how to get money out of him, honestly) and notices the guy working the booth is laughing at his expense. Before, Louis would have lashed out and laughed right back at the obvious bottle blond look he’s going for, but fatherhood has mellowed him out a bit. Also, he agrees. His son is ridiculous. He loves him.

 

“Three rings, please,” Sebastian pipes out as Louis hands over the couple quid, smiling politely at the guy. When he gets the rings in exchange, he passes them down to Sebastian, and hoists him up to his waist level so he has a flying chance.

What he doesn't expect however, is that is when Sebastian aims for his first throw, the blond roars to life, and begins a running commentary at the top of his lungs.

 

"AAAAAAAAAAND the little champion is in the game! We all saw his incredible win at the last world games but no one expected him to come out of retirement for this event, ladies and gentleman, the two meter toss!"

 

Sebastian squeals ecstatically, and hastily throws his first ring right at the bottles, clapping excitedly as it ricochets off a bottle and flies out of the booth entirely. Louis pats his back absentmindedly in a feeble attempt at consolation; too busy gaping at the guy and his Irish lilt.

 

"Oh look at that throw! Such force, such intent! Clearly our competitor is a mastermind, working in ways us simple spectators could never understand! Fortunately he's got two rings left, plenty of time for -”

 

He cuts off his speech to lean over to the boy, like they're in cahoots, and asks, "What’s your name, buddy?"

 

"Sebastian" he replies, like his grandma has trained him to do so well, and the blond stands right back up and continues” - time for the Sebastian Almighty to throw the money shot! It's gonna be unbelievable!"

 

Seb throws with slightly more focus, this time, and the second ring circles around a couple of bottles before disappointingly falling to the ground.

 

The worker comes in closer, his expression a look of pure concentration, as he quietly starts in, “Now, folks. We all know what awaits us now. Sebastian is going to come out from behind to end up victorious again, by landing the elusive HUNDRED POINT BOTTLE!” Louis spasms at the sudden bellow, but Sebastian is cackling, hardly jostled. Louis is wondering to himself if this hundred point bottle is some sort of new feature when Sebastian throws the last ring, only to be intercepted by the guy who slams it right around a bottle in the corner of the back row. Upon completion, he throws his arms in the air like a madman and starts running around his booth, screaming “GOOOOOOL!” That’s – that’s definitely a Spanish accent. Why is he screaming in Spanish? Louis thought he was Irish?

 

As much as Louis does not understand, Sebastian is ecstatic at the turn of events, so he turns his son around in his arms to face him and lifts him up high by the waist, and starts cheering for the champion, too.

 

He’s still twirling and throwing Sebastian about in the air when the guy in the booth, comes around to where they’re standing, holding out a bright orange inflatable guitar. Sebastian’s eyes go wide and he’s dumbfounded for a quick second before he’s squirming to get out of Louis’ grip and get his new toy.

 

Louis sets him down and he grabs the guitar and runs off with it immediately. Louis fonds over his son as he starts singing some absurd song about being the king of music and playing games, and notices the worker from the next game over is watching too, with a fond look of his own. As he well should be, his kid is adorable.

Louis takes a moment to face the booth again, thanking the guy for the experience. “You’re not supposed to give away the prizes like that, surely, but I’m thankful you did it for my son.”

 

“Please,” he responds, “He’s the cutest kid I’ve had all day. Plus I went to school with the owner’s son; they could never get rid of me.”

 

Louis’ in the middle of saying, “Thanks, nonetheless,” when he notices Sebastian is already at the next game, guitar lying beside him on the grass, and he hastily heads over to where he is.

 

Once he’s closer, he sees that it’s one of those fishing games, where the end of the rod has a small magnet and you try to attract it to as many of the “fish” as you can. Seb seems to be having a go at it but it’s not really working – he’s more just swishing the line to and fro in the little pool of water, to the encouragement of the guy working the game. And – huh. That’s the same one he noticed looking over at him and Sebastian before. Thankfully he doesn’t feel any creepy vibes, so he doesn’t interrupt, just takes a few steps closer.

 

Sebastian has now started swinging the end of the fishing rod around delightfully and is making up new rules, so Louis figures he’s still doing fine. He looks over at the guy and – hmm, tall. Nice. He’s clapping along with Sebastian just as excitedly, hopping back and forth and pulling faces. Are they skipping rope? Oh, that’s too funny. Now he’s taken the rod from Sebastian, why did – Good Lord, he’s pretending it’s a… harp? There aren’t any other instruments that can be play acted that dramatically, it must be what he’s going for. Sebastian is absolutely losing it, Louis is thrilled to see. There aren’t many people who can make his boy get like this. Sebastian has only ever been this open around him and his mother and sisters, and if Louis was being honest he was always worrying about his socialization, and if he was going to be ready when they put him in primary school the coming year. It’s nice to see him be so happy around someone he’s just met.

 

And that someone… Louis could be happy to meet him, too. He’s tall and pretty and gets on with his son like a dream. He’s got nice curls, too.

 

He’s caught in a reverie about running his hands through those curls when Sebastian runs up and stirs him.

 

“Daddy, look what I got from Mister Harry!” Sebastian holds a massive toy gorilla quite larger than he is up above his head, presumable for his daddy, who is way up high, to see it better. Louis is left to process both his son’s sudden arrival and Mister _Harry._

 

He collects himself and responds, “Seb, that’s fantastic! How many fishies did you catch?” Granted, he hadn’t actually seen Sebastian manage to get any, and last he saw him and Mister Harry were having a sword fight of sorts. But, he spaced out for a decent amount of time; he could’ve missed his son winning some miracle round.

 

“None.”

 

“Then how’d you get such a big prize, babe?”

 

“I don’t know. Mister Harry says I’m the best fisherman in the world!”

 

“That you are.” Sebastian starts to wander in another direction, still chattering away to Louis, who turns back to Harry to mouth a _Thank you._ Harry shoots him a stunning smile in return.

 

He falls back into step with Seb, who looks up at him and says, “Daddy, can I see Mister Harry again when we come back? He’s said he’s gonna tell me a really funny joke.”

 

“Sure thing.” Louis would like to see Mister Harry again too.

 

***

 

“Hey Sebastian.”

 

“What, Mister Harry?”

 

“Why couldn’t the pony sing?”

 

Sebastian sticks his tongue out the side of his mouth, thinking carefully, and scrunches up his nose when he can’t figure it out. “Why?”

 

Harry smirks, and responds, “Because he was a little horse!” Sebastian is hysterical and Harry is slapping his knee so proud of himself and God. That was awful.

 

Louis still likes him, though. It’s unfortunate.

 

***

 

Every weekend since Louis and Sebastian first ventured over to the games, it’s been the first place Seb has immediately run off to. He’s even abandoned the pirate ride. It’s quite sad.

 

However, he’s yet to improve – at all – at that same fishing game. He’s watching Sebastian play and Louis doesn’t think he’s caught a single fish since he’s started. He loves his soon unconditionally, but he’s been holding out hope that soon enough he’ll grow into some coordination. Seb’s four, granted, but it isn’t too early for Louis to start pushing the footie agenda on his child.

 

He’s playing again and failing as always, though Harry is still the perfect image of a cheerleader. Sebastian throws the line in with gusto as Harry roars, and the rod spectacularly flies out of his hands and into the pool. Harry laughs and grabs him a toy water gun off the prize rack and Seb claps, proud of himself. Louis scoffs audibly and both of his favorite boys snap their heads to face him, gawping in offense.

 

“Excuse me, _Louis_ , do you not think that he deserved this prize?” Harry asks, indignant, and Sebastian pipes in, “Yeah, daddy!”

 

Great, now they’re ganging up on him. He looks down at his son and says, “Honestly, babe, it can’t be that hard.”

 

“What’s that, Louis? You think you can beat the game?” Harry says.

 

“I think I could catch one on my first try, yeah, if that’s what you’re asking.”

 

Sebastian runs up to Louis and tugs on his arm, chanting and telling him to try it. Harry smirks and raises a brow, gesturing for him to go on. Louis shrugs and grabs the other rod (the one not currently floating in the kiddie pool), walking over to the game. “Can’t be too hard.”

 

Louis aims the rod behind his shoulder, swings it forward towards the closest fish, and… dammit. He just needs to shift a little to the… motherfucker. He starts swishing the line around in the water and realizes he looks just like Sebastian.

 

Harry cackles and Sebastian starts skipping around the pool singing about fish and how dad is bad. Who taught that boy how to rhyme, Louis needs to have a talk with them. He’s still scandalized that he can’t get a single fish and keeps trying, so he doesn’t notice that Harry’s come up behind him until he leans in close and says, “Told you.”

 

Louis jumps and ends up even closer in Harry’s space. Neither of them move.

 

“This game has got to be rigged. There’s no way a grown man can’t catch one of those stupid fish,” Louis complains.

 

“It is,” Harry confesses. “Half of the magnets are the wrong side out, so they like, repel.”

 

Louis sputters, outraged, and starts playfully slapping at Harry, who is laughing at him. “That’s got to be really fucking illegal, right? Please tell me this is illegal.”

 

“It’s just business Lou –“ He’s not happy with that response at all to be honest and smacks Harry upside the head, who hurriedly says, “A business that exploits the whims of children, granted, but it’s not like I haven’t given Sebastian a free prize every time he’s played.”

 

Louis can’t contest that. Harry thinks Louis’ pouty face is adorable.

 

***

 

“Daddy, do you like Mister Harry?” Sebastian asks innocently that night at the dinner table.

 

Louis chokes on his bite of salad and Jay turns, intrigued, and asks, “Yes, darling, do tell Grandma about this Harry.”

 

“What makes you say that, babe?” Louis asks Sebastian, still coughing up bits of lettuce.

 

“Because at the park today I saw you hitted Mister Harry and I heard Auntie Daisy’s friend say that if a boy does that to a girl it means he likes her. So that means you like him, Daddy!”

 

Louis is really going to need to have a talk with his sisters about the things Sebastian picks up from their friends. “First of all babe, don’t listen to that – girls get to decide who they like all on their own and should never have someone bothering them about that. Got it?”

 

Sebastian nods without question, and Louis is relieved. Jay adds, “Daddy’s right, baby. Do you think it’s very nice to treat someone like that?” Sebastian says no around a forkful of his dinner and Louis and his mom both smile.

“Do _you_ like Mister Harry, Sebastian?” Louis asks, ulterior motives obvious to Jay and nonexistent for Sebastian.

 

Sebastian looks at him like he just asked him the dumbest question in the world. “Yeah, Dad, he gives me prizes and makes me laugh.”

 

Louis says, “So we’ll keep him, then?” and Sebastian nods graciously. The matter is settled.

 

***

 

 On a nice weekend in June, Niall and Zayn from the rides (Louis finally met him officially. He’s amazing) are running about with Sebastian in the grassy patch behind the game booths. They’re playing a mash up of red light, green light, and red rover, where one of them is holding hands with Sebastian at all times while the other dictates if they’re stopping or going. Louis leans up against Niall’s game booth and Harry ambles over to join him.

 

They watch the proceedings in mutual silence for a bit, until Louis notices Harry is sort of watching him, instead. Louis looks over and quirks a brow, and Harry blushes. He clears his throat, however, and nudges Louis with his shoulder. “Tell me about him,” he says, and motions his chin out to Sebastian.

Louis, surprised at the query, asks, “What about, exactly?”

 

“How he came to be, you know, just yours.” Harry looks slightly nervous, but Louis feels a swell of trust pass through him, and he thinks he just might answer.

 

Louis looks over to where Niall is playing with Sebastian to make sure they’re both still occupied. Zayn is now telling them both a lively story, and Louis smiles fondly. Looking back at Harry, he sighs, second guesses himself, and finally speaks.

 

“The man who was supposed to raise Sebastian with me left us when our surrogate was almost seven months pregnant,” he announces, eyes never leaving Harry’s, so as to gauge his reaction. Harry breathes sharply through his nose and he brings up a hand to his chin. He rubs a little roughly at his face, as if to assuage the brunt of what Louis has said, and though his eyes have widened, he looks more concerned than scared off. Louis continues.

 

“That’s the thing, you know? There was already an “us” for me. My baby was an active part of my family – there wasn’t a single part of my life that I hadn’t planned including him in it. Nick though – that was his name. Nick. He wouldn’t have realized what a baby meant until he was there in our laps. I think he wanted it at first, but never as much as I did. I loved him from the moment he was an idea. Once we found our surrogate it just grew tenfold.” Louis pauses to steady himself.

 

“We met in uni. We were both in the same year but never met until we were in our last courses. I was in journalism, and even though he was studying media and communications we never crossed paths. For part of a final project I proposed to the campus radio that they expand the news program to include local sport, and they had me be host.”

 

“You see, Nick was already the newscaster, and didn’t like very much that they gave any of his time to some newbie, ingrate, imbecile like me. His words – we hated each other from the go.”

 

“At some point though, all that antagonism turned into flirting turned into… something. We weren’t good for each other. We didn’t much care. I’d always thought I wanted that kind of relationship, the constant push and pull, but it wore away at me. I was too proud to concede what everyone – my friends, family – already knew.”

 

Harry’s face is openly sympathetic, like with every word he feels what Louis went through. Not for the first time, Louis doesn’t know how he got lucky enough to have this person in his and Seb’s lives.

 

"Some two odd years later we were still together, to everyone's surprise. And it was good, you know? My problem was I thought good translated to permanent. So I asked him if he wanted to have a baby. His response was just like everything else we'd been through as a couple – he made a joke at my expense and halfheartedly committed to whatever it was I wanted."

 

“I found the surrogacy agency and got all the information myself. Now that I think about it, he didn't try to do one thing for the baby. I ignored the signs, said to myself it was because he trusted me, wanted the best, but even then I knew something wasn't right."

 

"When we met with Sophia, our surrogate, he was just off. I fell in love with her right away, she was super posh but down to earth all at once, a proper goddess. Nick hardly said a word - that was the weirdest part, honestly, the prick never shut up. But we went through with it, did the papers, helped Soph through the pregnancy, the like. Slowly he just completely stopped participating."

 

"I was too wrapped up to notice anything though," Louis says, voice going soft. "I had that pregnancy glow myself, it seemed like. I was just so happy, Harry. You wouldn't believe how well I took to pregnancy."

 

Harry guffaws, and looks at Louis with a new shine in his eye.

 

"And then one night, Nick came home and told me he couldn't keep up the act anymore. Sophia was just starting the third fucking term of her pregnancy and he changed his mind. I went absolutely ballistic Harry, but you have to understand how that felt for me - the family I had been imagining for months meant so little to that shit that he left both of us. Me, I can understand, but our baby is an angel. I don't know how he couldn't already see that. How he never did. I already made up a nursery." He wipes away a rogue tear and looks off to the side for a moment. Harry scoots closer, unsure whether to reach out to Louis. He doesn't acknowledge it, but he appreciates Harry still being there. Still caring.

 

"I spent the next couple of days packing up everything. I was gone within the week, left London to come back home to Donny. Soph was already on leave from work at that point so my mum and I offered her a room at home. It wasn't much, but she agreed, thank God. With the move and the final installment of the surrogacy, I'd used up almost all of my savings; I couldn't afford to put her up in a hotel. She was brilliant. I don't know how I would've coped without being near her and the baby."

 

"Come February, I had my son in my arms. He was worth all of it. My family was absolutely amazing too; my mum and all my sisters help out with him. I’m just so glad that despite everything he’s still so loved.”

 

“While I had some downtime staying home with him, I made some calls around and landed a position as a sports reporter for a local paper. It’s hard when I have to travel for games but he’s got plenty of babysitters to care for him. That’s why I started bringing him here, actually. As a sorry for being somewhat of an absentee father,” Louis ends, with a shrug.

 

Harry is hugging him.

 

Louis doesn’t even know like, logistically, how he had a mass of limbs around him so fast. Did Harry warp the space time continuum? Regardless, his face is pressed into Harry’s pec. The way he’s holding Louis, it…feels nice.

 

“Louis,” Harry says, albeit muffled as his mouth is pressed into Louis’ hair. “You are one of the most loving, amazing parents I have ever seen come through this bloody park. Don’t you dare tell me you aren’t, or that Sebastian can’t tell. He looks at you like you lit up the sun.” Louis thinks to himself that he’s glad Harry hasn’t noticed that’s exactly how he looks at him.

 

“And as for that tosser – I have no doubt in my mind he’s got to be the stupidest man in all of Britain to have left you, Seb or not. You’re amazing, Lou.”

 

Louis is so, so fucked.

 

***

 

Much of the same goes on for the following couple of months. Sebastian runs to the games, Harry is an amazing person who is great with his son, Louis harbors feelings that he will never dare act upon.

 

They’ve seen more of Harry than anyone else, but Zayn and Niall have become frequent members of their little group. Louis couldn’t be more pleased, to be honest – he only ever expected Sebastian to get anything out of their park arrangement, but the boys all seem to like Louis just as much as they do Seb.

 

Today however, they’ve started with the rides – as much as Sebastian loves all of his gifts from the game booths, he’s missed the thrill of the different attractions.

 

They walk up to the go-karting arena, where a teen boy with brightly colored hair checks Seb’s height – he just qualifies – and lets him into the ring. He mounts one of the smaller carts, more fit to his size, and joins the revelry and races around the arena. Louis goes to sit on a bench in the small waiting area for parents nearby. He only partially pays attention to the goings-on in the karting ring, and he mentally drafts the write up of the game he attended a few days ago, due to his editor in a day’s time.

 

He’s brainstorming a good hook when Sebastian is thrown off his kart.

 

At first, Louis can’t interpret what happened in the commotion. He sees the teen worker hurdle the gates, shouting for the children to stop. He sees a boy of about six or seven, standing off center in the ring, not moving, a look of pure terror on his face. He sees Seb’s mess of brown hair through the legs of the worker, who is bent down to the ground.

 

Louis sees red.

 

He gets up to run into the middle of it all in his fury but stumbles back in a sudden blow; someone has grabbed him from behind and he can only thrash about in his attempts to reach his son.

 

“Louis!” he hears, registers Zayn’s voice.

 

“What the fuck, Zayn, let me go! What happened? I need to see my son!”

 

Zayn sighs but doesn’t yield to Louis blows. “He’s going to be alright, mate, Harry’s taking care of it!”

 

Harry? He’ll process that later. “If he’s alright then let me see him! He’s my boy Zayn, he’s all I’ve got!” Louis pleads, voice heavy as his throat is thick with worry.

 

“I promise, we’re taking care of him,” Zayn reassures him. “Michael paged everyone about the incident immediately, he did good. Plus we can’t let you in there now anyway; it’s even more of a liability.”

 

Louis doesn’t know who Michael is, doesn’t care, and he understands what Zayn is saying, objectively, but his paternal instinct doesn’t give a fuck. “Zayn, just let go of me. I promise you I won’t go in, just let me see him for myself.”

 

Zayn concedes and Louis dashes forward to the edge of the karting ring, shoving through parents, children, and passerby alike with disregard, Zayn close behind. When they both reach a place where they can see, Zayn grips Louis’ shoulder to ground him. The kart Sebastian was on has a massive dent above one wheel, as does another kart nearby on its front. The little boy Louis saw earlier still looks ashen and terrified, and has obviously been crying. On the ground in front of him Harry squats over what could only be Sebastian. He starts screaming his name and hears only weak cries before the teen, who is probably the Michael Zayn had referred to, rushes over to placate him. Louis is yelling before he can start.

 

“Tell me what happened to my son, or I swear to god I will go mental.”

 

“Sir, there was an accident, but I can assure you he will be alright. Another child was out of control on the kart and crashed into his. Due to his size the restraint was insufficient, so he was thrown from the kart when the tire malfunctioned. He’s got some bruises and a bloody nose, but nothing else we can see. He’s being taken care of, but we can’t move him until the park paramedic arrives, to ensure he isn’t concussed.”

 

Bloody nose, bruises, concussion, bloody nose, bruises, concussion replays on a loop in Louis’ mind like a torturous check list. He’s crying freely now, and has slumped back into Zayn for support. Sebastian is too far away for him to speak normally, and he doesn’t want to startle him into moving, so he waits.

 

The paramedic comes in what seems like an eternity and the crowd actually parts for her to go through. She jogs forward assuredly, and with purpose, which assuages Louis. He watches as she checks his vitals and pulls out a tiny neck brace. That image scares him more than anything yet, and he’s wrought with renewed sobs.

 

Harry moves slightly and Louis can see her cradle his head gently, to slip the brace on. She shines a light into his eyes, performs a couple other tests he doesn’t understand, and finally smiles, signaling to Harry that Sebastian is okay. Harry picks him up into a careful bridal carry and walks straight towards Louis. Louis has never felt more overwhelmed and emotionally spent in his life.

 

Finally, the two of them reach Louis and he’s instantly on them. Louis kisses Sebastian’s cheeks and forehead frantically, and in the frenzy, leans up and gives Harry a peck on the lips. He doesn’t realize what happened until he’s back to holding Seb’s head and planting more kisses, but ignores it in favor of telling Sebastian how much he loves him. Harry can wait.

 

Harry, on his part, just smiles lovingly at the both of them and lets father and son reunite. He gently passes Sebastian, whose nose has stopped bleeding and seems to be gaining more alertness, into Louis’ arms. Louis gives him a grateful look, nods at Zayn, and takes his boy to go home.

 

***

 

They take an indefinite break from visiting the amusement park. That is, until one day Louis receives a call at work from a man who introduces himself as Liam Payne, the park’s Chief Operating Officer. He asks if Louis would be available to meet with him in the coming week to discuss the situation with Sebastian at the park. Louis knows it’s a necessary action, but the thought of reliving it alone nauseates him. He asks Payne if he needs to be alone or if he can bring Sebastian’s biological mother, and he assures Louis that it would be perfectly fine.

 

That night, he calls up Sophia in London to ask her if she wouldn’t mind coming down to visit and going to the meeting with him. Throughout the scandal with Nick she was always the one who could keep her own emotions in check, which helped to calm Louis. He isn’t sure if he’ll be able to brave the meeting with Payne if he doesn’t have her as a safety net.

 

Sophia, of course, agrees with no hesitation. She’s due to arrive in Doncaster in two days’ time, and now the only thing for Louis to worry about is Sebastian meeting his surrogate mother for the first time since his infancy.

 

He should’ve known that there was nothing to worry about; Sophia is a bona fide angel, after all.

 

“Sebastian, this is Auntie Sophia! Can you say hi, babe?”

 

Sebastian peeks out from behind Louis, and smiles shyly. “She’s pretty, Daddy,” he says to Louis, but loud enough for her to hear and flush, pleased.

 

“Isn’t she? Just like Auntie Lottie and Fizzy and Phoebe and Daisy right?”

 

“And Gramma Jay!” Sebastian pipes, and Louis beams.

 

“That’s right, Seb,” Louis says, “Like Gramma Jay. She’s our family just like they all are. But d’you want to know something extra special?”

 

Sebastian’s eyes go wide and he nods, excited. He loves when Daddy shares with him like he’s big, too.

 

Louis squats down to meet his son at eye level and he says, “Auntie Sophia is the reason that I have you.” Sebastian gasps, and Louis goes on. “I couldn’t do it all by myself, so she helped me out because she’s such a good friend. She’s my best friend, because she gave me the best gift I’ve ever gotten.”

 

“Me?” Sebastian asks, and when Louis nods, he repeats his shout of, “Me!”

 

Louis swoops the boy up under his arms and twirls him, and Sophia happily laughs. “You, Seb. You’re the best thing in my world.”

 

***

 

Sebastian stays home with Lottie when Louis and Sophia return to the park to meet with the COO. He’s a nice enough looking man, with neat facial hair and a well cut suit. If Louis’ being honest, he kind of reminds him of David Beckham, which endears Louis to him quite a bit.

 

That and how he reacts when he sees Sophia.

 

Louis is sure Liam Payne is a smart man, but any brains he may possess fly out the window when he sees Sophia. He emits a small hysterical chuckle, forgets to shake either of their hands, but does remember to introduce himself eventually. He sits behind his desk, but not before knowing over his cup full of pens, and spends a few minutes sorting through paperwork, as he’s lost his notes of what he’d planned to say.

 

Finally, some awkward moments later as Liam keeps darting his eyes up at Sophia then back down, he clears his throat a few times and talks.

 

“Mr. Tomlinson, I’d like to start off by saying on behalf of the entire park and its management, how deeply and sincerely sorry we are about what happened to your son. We take the safety of every one of our patrons extremely seriously, and I would like to assure you that a round of code checks and restraint upgrades is being performed on every one of our rides.”

 

“You’ll understand that we’d like to keep this matter internal if at all possible. Therefore, if you have any questions or requests, I would be glad to hear and accommodate anything that I can.”

 

Louis is glad to hear that at least something good has come out of what happened to Sebastian. He’s had some time to quell his rage at the incident, as well as Sophia’s guidance. He doesn’t see any reason in elongating the situation any further, as involving lawyers would surely do, as well as taking away his time from family and work. Besides, the park management is clearly treating their ride safety with the gravity the problem deserves.

 

He glances over at Sophia one last time before saying his piece. “I’d like free entrance to the park for as long as Sebastian and I continue our patronage, and I’d like to see Harry from the games booths.”

 

Liam gives a small smile, and says, “That can be arranged.”

 

***

 

Sophia stays behind to chat with Liam as Louis waits for Harry outside of the offices. His heart races a bit when he sees Harry walking towards him, and Harry beams once Louis is in his line of sight. Before Louis can say anything, Harry pulls him into a tight hug. They sway together for a few moments, until Louis pulls back and says, “Harry, you absolute madman, how in the world did you get to Sebastian before I did?”

 

He looks a little stunned by the question but huffs a laugh and says, “If you think I didn’t sprint to him the second I got Michael’s page, you don’t know me at all Louis Tomlinson.”

 

“He’s doing great, by the way,” Louis tells Harry. “He’s at home with my sister now, but he’s been asking for you for days.” Harry’s grin gives Louis the confidence to say what comes out next.

 

“You know, Harry, I’ve liked you for quite a while now. And that day a couple weeks ago was by far the worst I’ve ever fucking felt. When I saw you with my son in that moment, I was scared shitless, but at the same time… there was a sense of calm too, and it just blinded me, because I knew what I felt for you, but I could never be sure if you were right for not just me, but us. And I know now that you’re perfect for us. Sebastian adores you, I know the rest of my family will too, so if it’s not too much for you to take on, would you maybe like to get dinner some time?”

 

Harry laces his fingers through Louis hands, and kisses him softly. “I’ve loved Sebastian since the day I met him and I’ve been half in love with you almost as long. So no, it’s not too much for me, and yes, I’d like to get dinner.”

 

Louis, in his joy, laughs loudly and throws his arms around Harry’s neck, who picks him up and twirls him around, the sap. When he puts him down, he grabs hold of his hand again, and they head inside to free Sophia from Liam’s love gestures. He can’t wait to go home and tell Sebastian about all that’s happened.

 

As they’re walking, an errant thought occurs to Louis. “Why did they even let you stay with him anyway? You’d think they’d let his father in to be with him over some random park worker.”

 

Harry shoots him a sideways glance and deadpans, “I’m a certified EMT, Lou.”

 

That surprises Louis more than any of the goofy things Harry’s done in the time he’s known him. “Huh. I guess there’s a lot we’ve still got to learn about each other.”

 

Harry smiles. “Then let’s get started.”

 


End file.
